Rocketry Series Episode 5, Producing Fins, Rings, Couplers and Nosecones

New Payload Tube Design and Rocketry Series Episode 4

So I have been working on the rocket with which I may potentially attempt my Level 2 High Power Rocketry certification flight. The nosecone for the air frame is quite large and I wanted to be able to use some of the area within it for a payload. In particular I am considering flying a DIY GPS tracker in it. I also wanted to firmly affix the bulkhead to the nosecone, probably by bolting it into the 3d print but also epoxying it in place so the bulkhead will be in place permanently. So I've designed and built this payload area that can be threaded in and removed. It consists of a 31mm OD tube with a threaded 3d printed adaptor glued to its base. Another 3d printed threaded section is glued to the bulkhead which receives the tube and allows it to be fixed in place.

Above the tube is glued to the 3d printed base which has an internal threaded section.

Inserting the payload tube.

Payload tube in situ and tightening the threads.

Above is the tube threaded through the bulkhead removed from the nosecone. I've 3d printed a press fit cover for the upper end of the tube, to make sure the cap is retained throughout the violence of a rocket flight I'm going to experiment fitting a flush mounted M2 machine screw to fix the lid in place. 

As part of this process I of course had to cut the card tube to the length I required so I made a quick episode for the Rocketry Series on my YouTube Channel about approaches to cutting cardboard model rocketry tubes. Enjoy and don't forget to hit like and subscribe!

Rocketry Series Part 3, Lets get Scratch Building

Episode 3 is up!

Drone drop testing the Hexagonal Annular Parachute

A while back I came across this "Peak of Flight" issue all about odd chutes or odd parachute designs (Direct PDF download here). In it featured a tutorial for making an interesting looking Hexagonal Annular parachute, Ages ago I made a quick prototype using string and tape and the canopy cut from a plastic bag and it made me interested enough in the design to sew a small one from rip-stop nylon.

I wanted to test the parachute but didn't want to move straight to chucking it into a rocket so I decided to build a drop test mechanism I could attach to my drone. Rather than reinvent the wheel the servo holding pin pushing part of the mechanism (see video) was 3D printed from some files found on thingiverse here.

 In the (badly edited!!)  video above I walk through the main components of the drop mechanism and then show some clips recorded from today's test flights and test drops. Massive thanks to my son H (9yrs) for his excellent help in operating the release mechanism.

Rocketry Series Part 2, OpenRocket Walk Through.

In this episode we walk through a quick rocket design in OpenRocket and then simulate its flight. OpenRocket can be downloaded for free here 

Speaking at a Local Apollo50 event... I got to hold the moon!

Last night I spoke locally at MSParc a new science park building purpose built on Anglesey North Wales at a great event co-ordinated by MSParc and the local Dark Skies project. The event was family friendly and included a planetarium, some STEM activities, Dark Skies project info, displays of meteorites and local Astronomers showing off their excellent kit and work.

It was well attended and I was booked in to show some of my rocket on display and also to do a talk on SatNOGS and Librespace. It all went very well and was well received by a pretty fair sized audience for 6pm on a tuesday evening. What was really unexpected for me (as I hadn't read the full program!) was the final speaker booked after me was Dr Margaret Wood who spoke about her amazing career. Dr Wood has many accomplishments but in her early career she headed up a laboratory at Manchester University which was the most capably equipped laboratory in the world at the time to process and analyse the moon samples returned to earth by the Apollo missions. She spoke about this work and it was wonderful to hear and then she proceeded to produce some tiny grains of moon samples from that work (once Dr Wood found them in her hand bag!). It was an unexpected and brilliant end to a fab event to be able to hold a tiny speck of the moon.

Rocketry Series Part 1, Model Rocket Overview.

Just uploaded a video talking about model rockets, general overview stuff hopefully the first of a series with some more videos to follow on designing, running simulations and scratch building rockets.